Friday Feature: 9/19/25 - Veronica Tucker
Lullaby for the Hour Between
I set the cup down and the house answers with its own quiet.
Steam loosens from the rim and climbs the window like slow handwriting.
Somewhere upstairs, a small sock is missing its partner and a storybook sleeps open.
I tell myself there will be time, then I make it, right here, with breath.
The dog blinks at the threshold. The floor remembers footsteps.
Outside, pine leans into sky, and the sky forgives everything by being sky.
If a song is needed, it begins with the hum of the fridge, the wet tick of the sink,
the low thrum of a body worked through the night, still willing to notice.
I think of the ones who came in and left, the ones who stayed, the ones who will return,
their names folded in the pocket of my mind like receipts I never toss away.
I stir matcha and it draws a green galaxy, quiet as a promise.
I am learning to bless what is unremarkable.
The spoon touches porcelain. The room nods back.
When a child calls, I go.
When the kettle cools, I pour what remains into the herbs on the sill.
They ask only light, water, patience.
I give them all three. What grows is music.
From the Press:
What Tucker does so well here is remind us that poetry's work isn't always in the grand gesture. Sometimes it's the hum of a fridge, the steam climbing a window, the kettle whistling on the stove. She gives her full attention to what most of us look over, and in that act of care, shows us its brilliance.
I was struck by how tenderly she writes the everyday into praise. It takes discipline to listen so closely, and generosity to share it in a way that feels this effortless. This piece serves as a reminder that observing is itself a form of love.
About the Author:
Veronica Tucker is an emergency medicine and addiction medicine physician and poet from New Hampshire. Her work appears in One Art, The Berlin Review, and Eunoia Review, with additional publications forthcoming. She is a married mom of three. Find more at veronicatuckerwrites.com and on Instagram @veronicatuckerwrites.
Where to Find:
Instagram: @veronicatuckerwrites
Website: veronicatuckerwrites.com
